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As defenceman Mike Komisarek sat through his exit interview with Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle last spring, the message was delivered clearly and received acceptingly.

Carlyle said he needed Komisarek to be a better player than he’d been in his first three seasons in Toronto. On that point, the much-maligned Komisarek could only nod in agreement with the whole of Leafs Nation.

“I’m probably my harshest critic and I’m disappointed in myself,” Komisarek was saying on Tuesday. “I know I haven’t played my best (as a Leaf).”

Carlyle also laid out another expectation for Komisarek. He said he wanted the 10-year veteran to lose some weight and improve his conditioning before training camp.

“Randy wanted me at 230 (pounds) coming into camp. I was probably 240, 245 towards the end of last season,” the player said.

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Komisarek went to work, training with an assortment of strength-and-conditioning gurus during the off-season. If he needed extra motivation as the summer turned to fall and the NHL embarked on a lockout that would stretch most of four months, he only needed to observe the goings on around the Leafs’ American Hockey League affiliate.

“We all saw what happened to Nazem Kadri,” said Komisarek, speaking of the Maple Leaf prospect shamed for bringing excess body fat to AHL camp. “I definitely took that message to heart.”

All these months later, Komisarek says his weight is hovering in the “mid-230s, maybe 237.” So how will Komisarek’s leaner look go over in the coach’s office?

“I guess we’re going to see at the start of camp once the (fitness) testing starts,” Komisarek said with a laugh. “There’s no cramming for the fitness test . . . but I’m moving a lot better.”

Moving better isn’t playing better, but at least it’s a start. The Leafs, after all, were among the worst defensive teams in the NHL a season ago, when they were one of just four clubs to give up an average of more than three goals a game.

Carlyle is hoping a defence-first approach, combined with the Leafs’ in-house speed and scoring touch, can improve their fortunes. And certainly it’d be an plus if Komisarek — who spent much of last season as a healthy scratch despite a $5.5 million salary — could provide unexpected value for a pricey contract that runs through the 2013-14 campaign.

Whether or not Komisarek can rediscover the form that sent him to an all-star game in 2009, the Leafs have a few options for blue-line minutes. Captain Dion Phaneuf returns to the fold, as do veterans John-Michael Liles and Carl Gunnarsson. Jake Gardiner is expected to be available when he recovers from a head injury. Cody Franson, a restricted free agent, remains unsigned. And there’s a handful of Marlies in midseason form — among them Mike Kostka, Korbinian Holzer and Paul Ranger — who will battle for what remains of the roster real estate.

No matter who’s in the lineup, the Leafs will need to answer a key question: Can a roster built for Ron Wilson’s run-and-gun idealism prosper under Carlyle’s lockdown defensive conservatism?

The Leafs, reasons Komisarek, won’t have a problem potting goals. For all their struggles last year, when they finished 26th overall, they were the 10th highest scoring team in the league.

“I think (scoring is) a lot harder to teach than to have guys bear down defensively,” Komisarek said. “I’d rather be in our position than having guys that can’t put the puck in the net, can’t skate and have no creativity offensively.”

No matter his team’s limitations, or perhaps because of them, Carlyle hasn’t wavered in his approach. Though the Leafs won just six of 18 games after Carlyle took over for Wilson, one can argue the coach’s timing is right. When last the NHL partook in a lockout-shortened season, in 1994-95, league-wide scoring dipped considerably and it was the defensive-focused New Jersey Devils that came away with the Stanley Cup.

“I think a lot has changed since 1994-95. The game has changed. But still, in the end, if you watch football, if you watch baseball, if you watch soccer — defence gives you a chance,” Carlyle said. “It doesn’t mean you’re always going to win. But it gives you a better chance to win playing that way versus playing the run and gun. I’m sure every coach is stating the same thing, ‘We want to play better defence. We don’t want to play a run-and-gun style.’ I can guarantee it.”

Komisarek, for his part, knows there are no guarantees in this game. He knows full well he’s been mentioned as a candidate for an amnesty buyout at season’s end. He knows he’s been a punchline around town. But in the hope of rebooting his career, he redoubled his off-season workload. He studied with power-skating coach Barb Underhill. He spent part of the lockout skating with a group that included Sidney Crosby; he said he came away “refreshed” by his time with Crosby, not to mention in awe of The Kid’s work ethic and dressing-room gregariousness.

Komisarek will turn 31 on Jan. 19, the assumed opening night of the NHL’s yet-to-be-announced truncated schedule, but despite Father Time’s march he said he’s “moving a lot better than he has in years.” Maybe it’s married life that’s got him re-energized — he got hitched in July — but this much is for sure: Komisarek is hoping his birthday will coincide with an on-ice rebirth.

“I don’t want to make a headline, but you want to quiet everyone down and shut people up,” he said. “I know what I’ve shown is not the player I’m capable of being. At this point, I’ve got nothing to lose. The writing’s on the wall. But I came here to win. I’m not looking for a buyout or a trade or something like that. I want to play well. And then I want to be here next year. I want to have success here. That’s what I came here for in the first place. We’ll see how it unfolds.”

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